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Kerry Urges Iraqi Kurds to Band with Baghdad Against ISIL Insurgency

by VOA News June 24, 2014

Secretary of State John Kerry met Tuesday with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani in a bid to convince him to close ranks with the government in Baghdad to fend off an insurgency by Sunni militants.

It was the secretary's final round of diplomacy with Iraqi leaders before leaving the country.

Kerry's visit to Iraqi Kurdistan came amid a new round of conflicting reports that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants had captured Iraq's largest oil refinery at Beiji, north of Tikrit.

VOA could not independently confirm who is in control of Beiji.

Amateur video showed the aftermath of a bombing raid over the militant-controlled Iraqi border town of Qaim, facing Syria. Witnesses claim Syrian warplanes bombed militant positions from the air. In Kurdistan, Kerry thanked the Kurdish leader for helping battle the militants during their meeting. He went on to stress that resolving the current conflict revolves around forming an inclusive new government in Baghdad.

"As everybody knows, this is a very critical time for Iraq as a whole and the government formation challenge is the central challenge that we face,' Kerry said. 'In recent days the security cooperation between the forces here in the Kurdish area has been really critical in helping to draw a line with respect to ISIL and also to provide some support to the Iraqi security forces."

But Barzani was cautious about cooperating with the Baghdad forces, saying it was impossible to fight the militants, 'without a clear future, a complete agreement and a complete political solution.'

Kerry told U.S. broadcaster CBS that President Barack Obama is not planning to help the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki with air support, due to the lack of political consensus among Iraqi leaders. He said it would be a 'total act of irresponsibility' for the president to order air strikes when the current Iraqi government is not unified.

Al-Maliki meeting

On Monday, Kerry met with al-Maliki, a key Shi'ite cleric and the two highest-ranking Sunni lawmakers.

He said Monday Iraqi leaders assured him they would meet a July 1 deadline to start forming a new government, but he warned the Iraqis they must act quickly to block the advance of the militants.

The prime minister's office said al-Maliki told Kerry that the insurgents' advance 'represents a threat not only to Iraq but to regional and international peace.' The Iraqi leader called for U.S. air strikes against the insurgents, which the U.S. is considering.

The U.S. has not publicly called for Maliki to leave office, but has repeatedly pushed him to create a government that includes more authority for Sunnis and Kurds.

After his stop in Iraq, Kerry is due to travel to Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, and State Department officials say they expect to have discussions there with European partners about the situation in Iraq.

Edward Yeranian contributed to this report from Cairo.